


600 Floors

by thegoddesskym



Series: 600 Floors [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Au of sorts, M/M, demigod!Nico, everything is the same except for Will, mortal!Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 05:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6599266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoddesskym/pseuds/thegoddesskym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy somehow convinced Nico and Annabeth to spend the year with him in New York. The son of Hades is not thrilled about going to school, but when he meets a mortal boy named Will Solace that might change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	600 Floors

**Author's Note:**

> Hi :)  
> So this is an AU, where Will (and his friends) is mortal. The events in BOO are a bit altered, seeing as they were not there to stop the Romans from destroying Camp Half-Blood. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this :)

**600 Floors**

"Stop frowning, Nico! This is going to be a lot of fun", Percy Jackson exclaimed and grinned at his younger cousin.

Nico di Angelo was indeed frowning.

"Yeah, until we're eaten by monsters", he muttered.

Percy rolled his eyes and looked at his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, for help.

"He's right, Seaweed Brain. Three powerful demigods in one apartment? We will attract a whole lot of monsters", she said.

"Exactly! So I don't get why you're so keen on getting killed", Nico said.

Percy pouted at both of them. "We can at least try, right?"

Nico wanted to protest, but Annabeth sighed.

"Fine! We will stay with you for the year, but if this goes wrong, it's on you", she said and poked Percy in the chest.

"What? You can't possibly be okay with this?"

"Nico, education is important. How do you plan on going to college without graduating high school? Do you want to go back to living on the streets?"

"I'm perfectly fine with living on the streets", Nico said and crossed his arms.

"Be honest, is it the school or the monsters that scare you?", Annabeth asked.

"Please, as if school scared me"

"Then I don't see a problem! Let's go!", Percy exclaimed.

He grabbed Nico's wrist and started dragging him away from Camp Jupiter and towards New Rome.

"Percy, what are you doing?", Nico asked, after he freed his arm.

"Well, you need to pack, say good bye to Reyna and Hazel and then we have to travel to New York. And we don't have much time, my mom expects us for dinner", the son of Poseidon explained.

Annabeth, who had just caught up to them, started rattling off a list of things they would need to survive a school year at the Jackson-Blofis household. Nico had tuned her out as soon as she started talking about school supplies and looked around the small city they had just entered, trying to spot one of his favorite girls, but neither were anywhere to be seen.

Instead, Nico found Kayla, a Greek daughter of Apollo, who was arguing with Jennifer, a Roman daughter of Apollo. The argument looked pretty heated and the son of Hades wondered what it was about. Maybe it would be a good idea to stop them, before it got out of hand. He needed to talk to Kayla anyway. Annabeth was still talking about school and Percy was listening with glazed over eyes, so Nico figured they wouldn't notice him missing for a while.

"Hey Kayla!", he yelled and ran over to the half sisters.

"Face it, Kayla, unicorn drought is the better medicine. What good is ambrosia if it burns you up?", Jennifer was saying, when Nico stopped next to them.

"Maybe the people who take ambrosia need to have a few brains cells to realize when it's too much. But apparently you lack them", Kayla snapped back.

"Uh, girls, can I talk to Kayla for a minute?", Nico interrupted and both girls turned to glare at him.

Kayla's gaze softened after a few seconds and she nodded.

"This is not over", she told Jennifer, then she pulled Nico away from her. "So? What do you want to talk about?"

Nico told her about Percy's wonderful idea (note the sarcasm) that Annabeth and Nico should spend the school year in New York. Kayla looked a bit confused.

"And why are you telling me this?"

"You need to convince Percy that I can't go because of the fading stuff", Nico explained.

"Sorry, but I can't lie about the state of my patients. My dad's the god of truth after all. You will do fine, New York is almost completely monster free since the war. There is nothing to get there anymore, after all", Kayla said. She looked sad at the last part and turned to go.

Nico just nodded defeated. Looked like he had to spend at least a couple of months in the mortal world.

**~OoO~**

Going back to New York felt strange. It was like going back into the past, into a time when everything was better. Not good, but better than it was now. After Gaea was put back to sleep, the last of the monsters were killed and driven back from Half-Blood Hill. The fallen demigods were honored with a big ceremony and the most fatally wounded were treated, before everybody packed up and left.

Nico couldn't remember the drive to Camp Jupiter very well, he was unconscious for most of it, but he knew it was a silent and tense journey. The Greeks didn't trust the Romans very much and everybody blamed the other for the destruction of Camp Half-Blood. Only the sight of a equally destroyed New Rome, put the Greeks to peace and they all started rebuilding the demigod city. Now, one year later, the city looked less destroyed and chaotic then it did before, but it was still far away from resembling the city it had been.

"The winds are picking up, we have to circle around and go over seas!", Annabeth yelled and pulled Nico out of his thoughts.

He lifted his head from Percy's back and blinked. A look around told him that they were south of New York City, the Atlantic Ocean glittering in the evening sun on the horizon. Percy said something to Blackjack and the pegasus suddenly swerved to the right. Nico tightened his grip on Percy, so that he didn't fall down.

Annabeth was a few meters ahead of them, carefully studying the ground and holding out a hand to test the winds. Her pegasus seemed to have a lot more fun than Blackjack, which was probably Nico's fault. The black pegasus was the only one who would carry Nico and because he had some weird claim on Percy, he refused to let him ride any other pegasus then him. (Yes, Blackjack was weird like that.) The problem had been solved with Percy pulling Nico on the flying horse behind him, making the journey harder for Blackjack.

"You still alive, back there?", Percy asked him.

Nico nodded, not that Percy could see that.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Blackjack says we will be there in a few minutes."

Indeed, ten minutes later the pegasi landed on the roof of an apartment house. Nico jumped off Blackjack as soon as he hit the ground. Percy slid off after him and walked over to the edge of the roof. The pegasi flew off into the sunset.

"It feels weird, doesn't it?", Percy asked.

Nico stood next to him, noticing that Percy was looking in the direction of Camp Half-Blood, or what was left of it. He had a sad expression on his face.

"You think we can rebuild it sometime?", the son of Poseidon asked.

"The onagers destroyed it completely, it will take years until we can build there again. We would have to replace all the cabins, the big house, the amphitheater, not to mention the fact that the forest is almost completely burned down. The imperial gold killed all the life in the valley, it's impossible to build anything there for another couple of years. Not until the nature has recovered.", Annabeth said softly. She too looked incredibly sad at the thought of her home.

Percy nodded slightly, then threw his arm around Annabeth's shoulder and grinned. "Mom's waiting. I hope she made blue cookies."

**~OoO~**

Annabeth's scream woke Nico up. Followed by an annoyed. "Dammit, Percy! You're such an idiot!"

Nico relaxed a bit, glad that Annabeth hadn't been attacked. He put his sword back in the shadows, after realizing that he held it in his hand. The door to his room flew open and a drenched Annabeth stood in the doorway.

"Get up, Nico. School starts today", she said and left again.

Nico put on some clothes and followed her into the living room, where Sally was scolding Percy. Paul was crouching in the doorway to the balcony and feeding Mrs. O'Leary. The hellhound had turned up last night, carrying Tyson and his girlfriend Ella, who were sitting at the table. Ella was picking all the raisins out of the cereal and put them on Annabeth's plate, who was eating them while formulating a strategy to get through the day. Tyson was happily eating blue waffles, which Percy was trying to steal from him. Nico wondered what he did to deserve a life with these crazies.

"Good morning, Nico!", Sally greeted and offered him a plate of waffles, the argument with her son completely forgotten.

Annabeth looked up from her notes and apologized for being so rude earlier. Nico told her that it was alright and sat down to eat some cereal. Ella offered to pick out the raisins, while Percy asked if he could have his waffles. Before Nico could answer either of them, Paul and Sally sat down and Annabeth pulled them into a conversation about school.

Nico gave Percy his stupid waffles, so that the guy was happy and would stop annoying him. Since they arrived here three days ago, Percy had gotten even more annoying then usual. It could be because Nico was forced to actually spend the whole day with his cousin. He finally traded rooms with Annabeth after two nights of not getting any sleep because of him. So now Nico was sleeping in the guest room, while Annabeth was rooming with Percy. Tyson and Ella had spent the night on the couch and Mrs. O'Leary on the balcony. They would stay for a while before traveling back to California.

"Are you excited about school, Nico?", Sally asked. "It's your first time since you were ten, right?"

"Yeah, but I could have lived with staying out of school for a bit longer", Nico said.

Annabeth gave him a disapproving look but thankfully didn't say anything. She was crazy about him getting an education.

"Well, anyway, we have to go soon. Would you guys like a ride to school?", Paul asked.

Percy pulled a face, while Annabeth nodded and thanked him for the offer.

Percy groaned. "Man, that's so uncool, going to school with your parent who's a teacher"

"That's your problem", Nico told him.

"Percy, you saved the world. Twice. It doesn't go cooler than that", Annabeth said.

"Yes, Percy, you're cool!", Tyson agreed. Percy sighed heavily and pressed out a 'fine'.

"Good, then let's go!"

The ride to Goode High School was silent and when they pulled up next to the entry, Percy hopped out and went a few meters away, so that nobody would think he came with them. Annabeth rolled her eyes and joined him.

"Nobody's going to think you're uncool", she told him again. "Why does it matter, anyway?"

"I'm a senior now, Annie, I can't be uncool", Percy explained.

"You haven't been here for two years, nobody even still knows you", Nico muttered. In that moment a shout of 'Percy!' sounded over the parking lot. "Well, except for her"

A girl was running towards them and stopped right in front of Percy.

"Percy? Percy Jackson?", she asked.

Percy nodded slowly.

"It's me, Katie! I haven't seen you in ages! After you went missing and didn't come back even after they found you, we thought we would never see you again", she babbled excitedly.

Percy rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Surprise?" It was obvious he had no idea who Katie was.

"Oh, who are your friends?", Katie asked.

"Well, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth", Percy said and pulled her into his arms. "And my cousin, Nico" Katie smiled at Annabeth and gave a small frown at Nico, before turning back to Percy. Nico rolled his eyes. It hadn't been five minutes and the first one didn't like him.

"Do you know what your schedule is? Maybe we have some lessons together", Katie asked.

"No, we don't.", Annabeth lied. She pulled Percy away from Katie and Nico followed her.

"See you around, Katelyn!", Percy yelled.

"It's Katie!"

"Yeah, whatever"

"Who was she?", Annabeth asked. Her jealous side was showing again.

"I don't know", Percy responded. He turned towards Nico. "Your first class is right down this corridor and the second door on the left"

Nico nodded his thanks and set off to get to his class. They had gotten their schedules yesterday from Paul and Nico had spend nearly the whole evening wondering who was evil enough to put Maths as his first class in the morning. When he entered the room, the class as nearly complete, even the teacher was already there. She looked familiar, too familiar, and Nico wondered if this was supposed to be a joke.

"Ah, you must be the new student. You can sit over there", Mrs. Dodds said, motioning towards a free spot near the window. Right behind a blond boy with blue eyes, who was busy staring at him. Great.

**~OoOoOoO~**

Will Solace was hastily running down the steps to the front door. The bus was going to leave in two minutes and if he didn't make it, he would be late, on the first school day of his second year in high school, and that was something he was trying to avoid.

"Slow down, or you're going to hurt yourself", his mother called from the kitchen.

Will rolled his eyes, he wasn't a little kid any more. Sprinting out of the house and down the the sidewalk, he reached the bus, just as it was ready to go. "Sorry", he apologized to the driver, who was muttering some not so nice things, and plopped down in the nearest free seat.

"Am I seeing things right? Did Will Solace truly oversleep?", a female voice joked from behind him.

Will turned around to his friend, Lou Ellen, who was leaning over the back of his seat and was smirking at him.

"I didn't oversleep, I just couldn't find my biology book", Will explained.

"It's the first day, you're not going to need it", Lou said.

Will wanted to protest, but the bus stopped, forcing Lou to sit down again, because an older lady sat down next to her. This ended their conversation.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Goode High School and climbed out of the bus and made their way towards their first classes. Lou had History, while Will had Maths, something he wasn't too happy about. His teacher was strict and seemed to hate children, which made Will wonder why she decided to become a teacher. Will himself wanted to become a doctor when he grew up, so he was more focused on the science side of his education. When he entered, the new teacher, Mrs. Dodds, was already setting up her desk and a few students were sitting at their desks. Will chose one near the middle, so that he wasn't in the front row, where he knew teacher's favorite victims sat, and not in the back, were the 'popular' people were sitting.

A few minutes later, the door opened and in came a boy, Will hadn't seen around before. Sure, Goode wasn't exactly small, but Will was sure he had seen every student in this school, especially those in his year. Which could only mean that he was new. He had black hair, which hung into is equally dark eyes, a pale complexion and seemed to hate color. His t-shirt was black, the jeans were black, even his shoes were black. (It was a bit much black for his taste.) He also seemed to have a huge scar on his left arm, which was partly hidden by his sleeve, and some sort of tattoo on his right forearm, which was weird because he couldn't be older than sixteen and as far as Will knew, you couldn't get tattoos at that age. Mrs. Dodds said something and then the boy was coming his way. He scowled shortly at Will, then ignored him and sat down at the desk behind him.

Will wondered if he should say 'hello'. None of the others did, some even looking at the boy like they didn't even like him. That seemed a bit unfair to Will. The blonde didn't like prejudice.

So, he turned around and said: "Hi"

The boy looked up from where he was playing with a scull ring and frowned at him.

"I'm Will Solace, what's your name?", Will introduced himself.

"Nico", the boy said shortly. He slid the ring back on one of his fingers and rubbed his left arm, like he was uncomfortable. Will noticed two leather armbands on his right wrist. One had a silver pendant that looked like a diamond, the other had four colorful beads. Will smiled at him, which got Nico to frown even more.

"Soo...where are you from?", Will asked awkwardly.

"California", Nico responded. Will nodded and an uncomfortable silence stretched out between them. Thankfully, the bell rung in this moment and Mrs. Dodds started her lesson. Will turned around and tried to focus on what she was saying, but he could feel Nico's gaze on his back and that was distracting.

**~OoO~**

As he found out, Will also shared PE with Nico, which was just before lunch. He tried to make conversation with him while they were waiting for the teacher to show up. It was hard and awkward, seeing as Nico only gave short answers and didn't seem interested in actually talking to him. Over the course of that short interaction, he found out that Nico's last name was di Angelo, that he was originally from Italy and that he was staying with his cousin. Also, the matter of his family was a touchy subject.

During the lesson Nico kept to himself mostly, only interacting with others if he had too. They were playing a game of dodge ball and he was really good at it. Will couldn't help but be impressed.

The lesson went over quickly and they headed back to the locker rooms. Will quickly changed his clothes and grabbed his bag. He had promised his friends, Lou Ellen and Cecil, that he would reserve them a table. When he came to the cafeteria, most of the tables were already full. He spotted a free table at the side of the room and walked over to it. Just as he wanted to sit down, two others pulled out the chairs to sit. Will looked around to see if any other tables were free, but this one had been the last.

"Oh sorry, was this your table?", the girl of the two asked and looked at Will with surprise.

He was still standing next to the table, looking slightly dumb.

"Nah, I will just get another one", he said.

"I'm sorry, we didn't see you there. You can sit down, there is enough space", the girl continued and motioned to the table.

Indeed, there were still six places free. Will smiled gratefully and plopped down at the other end. Now he had to wait for his friends. In the mean time he studied, the other two, who were engrossed in a conversation about lessons. He hadn't seen them around before and wondered if they were new, too. The boy was older than Will by two or three years, and taller. He had unruly black hair and sea green eyes, was tanned and looked like he worked out a lot. He was wearing a dark blue shirt and ripped jeans and leather band around his neck with a handful of beads on them. They looked a bit like Nico's. The girl was tanned, had blond hair, which she wore in a ponytail, and stormy gray eyes. She had one a light yellow blouse, with blue jeans. She too wore the necklace and Will wondered if they meant anything. They were obviously together, so maybe they were a sign of their relationship.

Suddenly Lou turned up across from him. She was carrying lunch and set down a tray in front of him.

"You won't believe what Mrs. Fletcher did", she said instead of a greeting.

Cecil sat down next to Will and the two of them proceeded to tell Will everything about Mrs. Fletcher's lesson. His attention wavered, though, when the boy and the girl waved someone over and he spotted nearly the same tattoo as Nico's on their arms. A few seconds later, said boy said down next to the girl and promptly buried his head under his arms and groaned loudly.

"Oh, come on, Neeks, I bet it wasn't that bad", the boy said, he leaned over and ruffled Nico's hair.

"Stop doing that", Nico said and lifted his head to glare at him.

Lou had stopped talking and was looking over at them with a mix of curiosity and confusion.

"Hey, Nico", Will greeted cheerfully. Nico groaned louder and buried his head again.

"Who's that?", Lou said at the same time as the other girl did.

"His name is Nico, he's new", Will explained shortly, while Nico whispered something he couldn't understand.

**~OoO~**

It took a few days until Will was back in the school routine. Two weeks after the start of the year he felt like he never left school for the summer. In the meantime he had learned the names of Nico's friends, Percy and Annabeth, and had tried to befriend him. He had noticed that Nico rarely talked to anybody who weren't those two and that made Will sad. Everybody needed friends. But befriending him was harder than he thought, seeing as Nico totally ignored him. So when Mr. Blofis paired them up for a English project on the Illiad, he was ecstatic. Nico not so much. He actually stayed behind to talk to Mr. Blofis, something that hurt Will a bit. What had he done to make Nico hate him so much? Whatever it was, Will was determined to get it out of the way. He stayed behind after class and waited in the hallway to talk to him. School was over anyway and so Will didn't need to get to another class.

After a few minutes, Nico emerged from the classroom and stopped when he saw Will.

"What?", he asked.

"I was wondering when you would have time to work on the project", Will said, hoping that Nico was still his partner. How else would he be able to talk to him?

"Can't I just make my part and give it to you? Do we really have to meet up for that?", Nico asked.

"That's not how a partner project works, Nico", Will said. Nico sighed. "Fine. Is Saturday okay with you? At two?"

Will nodded, smiling brightly. "My parents aren't home at that time, so I will have to come to you"

Nico frowned. "Why can't I just come over at yours without your parents there?"

Will blushed slightly. That was always embarrassing.

"My mom doesn't like strangers in her house and unless she met you before, you're a stranger", he admitted.

"Okay, then", Nico said. He gave Will a slip of paper with his address on it and then walked away.

Will had a feeling that Nico didn't want Will coming to his house. He told Lou Ellen as much on Saturday.

"I still don't get why you're so keen on befriending him", she said as a response. "That guy is creepy"

Will glared at his best friend and then looked down into his milkshake. They were sitting in a cafe a few streets away from school.

"He is not creepy", he finally said. "Just a bit different from us and I want to be his friend because no one else wants to try"

"Percy and Annabeth are is friends. Isn't that enough? You only have two friends, too", Lou responded and took a sip from her shake.

"Maybe I want to have more friends, too", Will muttered. He drank the last of his shake and stood up. It was nearly two and he had to go to Nico's now.

Lou waved her good bye and disappeared down the streets. Will set off towards the address Nico gave him. The nearer he got, the more nervous he became. He wondered what Nico's family was like and more importantly, what Nico was like. Now that they actually had to talk to each other, Will could learn a lot more about that mysterious boy. Before he could decide on what to say, he stood in front of an apartment complex. It looked quite nice, so Nico's family must have at least some money. He took a deep breath and entered, climbing the stairs until the fourth floor and then searching for the number 18. Well, here goes nothing, he thought and knocked.

Will didn't really know what he expected, but it certainly wasn't Mr. Blofis. He cursed Nico in his head for playing such a dump prank on him, before trying to apologize, but Mr. Blofis beat him to it.

"Will! You must be here to see Nico", he said.

"Uh...yeah?"

"Come in, they are in the living room", Mr. Blofis said and motioned for Will to step inside.

Will was confused, but entered. He followed his teacher towards the end of the hallway, where a living room was. Inside, a bunch of teenagers were sitting around. Will could make out Percy, who was playing Mario Kart with a tall and scarred boy, and Annabeth, who was sitting on the floor, next to a redhead, and Nico, who were all studying some sort of old book. A middle aged woman was standing in the adjoining kitchen and was baking. Will was speechless. And confused. What was going on. What were they all doing at Mr. Blofis' home?

"Hey, Will!", Percy greeted, having noticed Will.

"Hi?"

Nico's head snapped up and he paled. "Oh, you're here"

Now everyone was looking at him in utter bewilderment, even the woman.

"You invited him?", Percy asked, disbelief clear in his voice. "You?"

He made it sound like that was the most abnormal thing ever.

"It's because of a project. For school", Will said.

Immediately they all went back to doing what they were before.

"Oh, and I thought he was socializing", Percy muttered.

Nico stood up, slapped Percy on the back of his head and walked out of the room. Will followed him.

"Soooo...you're living here?", he asked.

Nico gave him a confused look and said "Yes?" like it was obvious.

Will blushed and looked down at his feet. Why was he asking such dumb things?

They reached a door and Nico entered. The room was rather small, with a bed pushed to on side, a dresser to the other and a desk standing under the window. It was surprisingly bare, no decoration, no pictures, nothing. Will sat down on the chair, while Nico sat on the bed.

"How do you want to do things now?", the black haired boy asked.

"We have to research the topic first. Do you know anything about Achilles?", Will said.

Nico grinned slightly. "How much do you want?"

The next hour was spend with Nico writing down everything he knew about Achilles, which was apparently a lot, and Will not doing anything.

"Why do you know so much about this topic?", Will asked after a while.

"Had to do a presentation about it before and I did some research about it while I was bored. It helped out Percy a lot a few years ago", Nico answered. It was silent again.

"How do you know him? Percy, I mean", Will asked. Maybe he could finally get to know Nico better.

"He's my cousin and I live with him. Paul, Mr. Blofis, is his stepfather, by the way."

Will nodded, wondering how Nico could know he was confused by that. "And the others?"

"Tyson is Percy's half-brother, Ella his girlfriend and Annabeth Percy's. Ella and Tyson sometimes come over and Annabeth lives here, too"

"Must be cool, such a big family. I only have my mom"

Nico nodded and handed him his notes. Will read over them, which was kind of hard, seeing as it was riddled with spelling mistakes and some words in different languages.

"I have dyslexia. And I'm Italian and Greek, so that happens sometimes", Nico said apologetically.

"Don't worry. I will write it down at home, so I have done something, too.", Will said.

Nico just shrugged and followed Will to the door.

"We should hang out sometime", he said and turned to Nico. He looked surprised, before shrugging and saying 'okay'.

"Good. Can I have your number?", Will asked and at Nico's confused look he added "You know, to stay in contact because of the project"

"I...don't have a cell phone"

Will blinked surprised, before nodding. "Then no number. See you in school"

Will waved and left the apartment, wondering what kind of teenager didn't have a cell phone.

**~OoOoOoO~**

Nico woke up on Monday morning, gasping and drenched in sweat. Sally was crouched in front of him, a worried look on her face.

"Nightmare?", she asked. Nico nodded, tears welling up in his eyes.

Immediately, Sally pulled him into a hug. Normally, Nico would pull away because he hated being touched, but with Sally it felt nice and comforting. It remembered him of his mother, who would comfort him during a thunderstorm. The memory of his mother's smile and Sally softly stroking his head made him relax. Slowly she pulled away and gave Nico a small smile.

"Do you want to talk about it?", she asked.

Nico shook his head. Talking brought nothing. She wouldn't understand, nobody could. Sally sighed, but didn't press the matter.

"Do you want to stay home today? Maybe call your sister and get a day of rest"

Nico thought about it for a moment. Calling Hazel would definitively help and he didn't want to go to school after a night like this. If he was honest, he never wanted to go to school again. He didn't fit into the mortal world and the carefree children in school always reminded him of a life he could never have. So why bother? He could get a perfectly fine education in New Rome, why was he even here? Because Percy missed his mother and decided to drag Nico along. All this trip brought him were more people who didn't like him. The only exception was Will Solace and that boy was friendly to everyone.

Nico was so deep in thought that he didn't hear Sally leave, only when a door slammed shut in another room did he notice that she was gone. Nico closed his eyes again and laid back, maybe he could get some more sleep. But as soon as he closed his eyes, the world was filled with red and the air was poisonous. No sleep then.

Nico wrapped himself in a blanket and climbed out of the window and onto the fire escape. It was still dark and the stars were shining brightly in the sky. Nico spend the next few hours just sitting there, watching the city wake up and listening to the voices inside of the apartment. Percy was debating something with Paul, he was probably worried about his coolness again. Percy was ridiculous sometimes. A knock on the door made him turn around. Annabeth was climbing on the fire escape next to him.

"Percy is being immature again and it's annoying", she explained.

"He's always annoying", Nico said.

Annabeth chuckled. "That is true, but we like him anyway" Then she got serious again. "You should come in if you don't want to catch a cold."

Nico just shrugged. He wasn't feeling cold.

"If you want to talk about it, you can always come to us, you know."

Surprised, the son of Hades glanced over at her.

"Sally told me you were staying at home today, so I figured it out. I dreamed about that pl-place yesterday and I can understand that you don't want to face a bunch of teenagers, who don't have to worry about anything other than graduating, afterwards.", Annabeth said. She took a deep breath. "I don't want to go today either, but I can't miss everyday of school because of my nightmares"

She gave Nico a look that told him that she understood him, because she had gone through horrible things too. So he told her and she listened and understood and that felt … good.

A knock on the door a few hours later startled Nico. He was alone with Sally, who was in her room talking to a friend of hers. Percy and Annabeth went grocery shopping and Paul was at a meeting in school. Hesitantly, he walked towards the door. It was neither of the three others living here because they all had a key, so it could be anybody. A neighbor, a relative of Paul or a monster. And because Nico was a demigod, he was naturally paranoid and suspected the worst. So when he found Will Solace standing in front of the door instead of a monster he was glad (not to mentioned shocked because Will Solace was standing in front of the door). Quickly he recovered his surprised expression and slid his ring back on his finger. Better not test if Will could see through the Mist and scare him away with his sword.

He opened the door and Will turned his head towards him, smiling one of his blinding smiles. Nico wondered if Will was actually a son of Apollo with those smiles, but then he remembered that he was as mortal as it gets.

"What are you doing here?", he asked.

"Well, I brought your homework", Will said. He held up a couple of papers.

"What?", Nico asked surprised. He hadn't expected that. "Thanks, I guess" He took the papers.

"Soo... how are you feeling?", Will asked awkwardly.

Nico looked up from the papers and frowned.

"Because you were sick today and I was worried", Will continued.

"I'm fine"

The following silence was awkward. Nico didn't know what to do and Will seemed unsure, too.

"You are Will, right?", Sally suddenly said from behind Nico. She was standing in the door to the bedroom and was smiling.

"Yes, mam", Will said.

"Why don't you come in? I'm sure you can do the homework together." Scratch that, she wasn't smiling, she was smirking. And giving Nico a pointed glance.

He turned back to Will, who was blushing slightly.

"Yeah, come in", Nico said and opened the door farther, so that the blonde boy could enter.

"You can take the living room, I'll be back here", Sally said and disappeared again.

Nico was staring after her with a horrified expression. She was leaving him alone with Will?

Will on the other hand looked at him expectantly and Nico sighed. Seems like he actually had to talk to him now.

A few minutes later they were sitting at the table in the living room, trying and failing to solve the math problems. Or at least Nico was. Will was solving them with ease.

"That's the wrong answer. It's x = 2, not 2.8.", he suddenly said and pointed to one of the few answers on Nico's sheet.

"See, here you have to first take the square roots, before you can divide it through two"

Nico frowned.

"But can't I first divide it and then do the square roots?", he asked.

"No because there is a order and you have to follow it." Will sounded so much like a teacher at the moment that Nico wondered if he tutored other kids.

He corrected his answer and went to work on the next problem. His dyslexia didn't help much and so he mixed the numbers up quite a lot. After Will corrected him for the third time, Nico finally snapped.

"I'm not a child of Athena, okay?!", he snapped at Will.

Then he stood up and left for his room. Fuming he sat down on his bed and glared at the ceiling. What a rotten day. First his nightmare, then Sally forcing him to socialize and now Will constantly correcting him. Someone knocked quietly on the door.

"Nico? I didn't want to make you feel bad."

It was Will and he sounded like he was actually sorry about that. Yeah, sure. No-one ever cared how Nico felt.

"Can I come in?"

"If you have to", Nico said.

The door opened and Will sat down next to him. Nico glared at him, but Will didn't seem fazed by that.

"I'm sorry if I offended you", he said.

He not only sounded like he was sorry, he also looked like it. He actually meant it. And just like that Nico's anger vaporized. He looked away from Will's bright blue eyes and back up at the ceiling.

"What's your favorite color?", Will asked suddenly.

"I don't really have one", Nico replied truthfully.

"Mine is yellow. Favorite food?"

Nico looked over at the other boy. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I want to get to know you"

"Why?"

"Because yous seem like a nice person and I want to be your friend"

**~OoO~**

The next day Nico sat next to Will during lunch. Some girl named Lou and a boy named Cecil were there too, but they were looking at Nico as if they wondered why he was there. Will was oblivious to this and was talking about a Chinese restaurant he wanted to go to in the evening. Finally Lou stopped staring and joined the conversation, saying that she always wanted to go to China. Nico was tempted to say that he had been there a couple of times but decided against it. It would raise to many questions.

Instead he said that he would go find Percy and Annabeth and left. Will looked a bit sad at that and Nico nearly stayed just to get that frown off his face. In the end he nearly ran out of the cafeteria, trying to figure out why he thought like that. It couldn't be that he actually liked Will, could it? Because he didn't. And why did Will look sad at the thought of Nico leaving? Sure, he was the only one in this school who even bothered to talk to Nico, but that didn't mean he liked him. He was just being friendly. Even if, and that was a big if, Will wanted to be Nico's friend, it would never work. Will was mortal, Nico was a demigod, a son of Hades. As soon as Will knew who – what – he truly was, he would run away screaming.

Nico slammed into another person, sending both of them to the ground.

"Watch were you're going, punk!", the other boy snarled and got back up.

Nico glared up at him and climbed back to his feet. Apparently he walked outside without realizing it. The boy was older than him and taller, he was also surrounded by three others. It probably would be a good idea to leave them alone.

Nico turned around and walked towards the second school building, where his next class was.

"Hey, I said something to you, punk!", the boy yelled after him.

"Nice for you", Nico muttered, but apparently the boys heard it.

"What was that?", one of the others snarled. "You want to repeat that?"

Nico rolled his eyes and continued on. What was their problem?

Suddenly one grabbed his arm and turned him around.

"You think you're better than us?", he asked and shoved Nico back.

Nico wanted to answer with something like 'I _know_ I'm better than you' but figured that wouldn't be all that smart. So instead he just shook his head and wanted to walk away again. Best not to provoke them.

"You scared?", the first boy taunted. "You gonna run to your mommy?"

Nico froze mid-step. He whirled around and glared at the boy.

"What?", he asked, trying to keep his calm.

The boys laughed at that and one of them high-fived the speaker. Nico narrowed his eyes. Did they think this was funny?

"Go on, run for your mommy, you little baby!", a boy said and started laughing.

Nico focused his glare on him.

"Say that again, I dare you", he hissed.

The boy visibly gulped, but didn't want to seem like he was scared. "I said, run for your mom-"

He broke off in the middle of the sentence, clutching his nose and fell on his behind.

"You bwoke my nowe!", the boy said, his voice muffled.

The others stared at Nico, who was rubbing his slightly bloody knuckles, in utter shock.

"Nico!", Percy's voice sounded and a couple seconds later he was standing next to him. "What did you do?"

In that moment, the first boy let out a angry yell and charged at Nico. He didn't even touch the demigod, before he was lying on the floor next to his friend, arms wrapped around his chest and whimpering softly.

Nico frowned down at his leg, wondering how it could move without Nico telling it to. The others took that as a sign to retreat. Percy was staring at the boys on the floor.

"What did you do, Dylan?"

"Nothing", the boy said and slowly sat up. "He just attacked us. The kid is crazy!"

Nico opened his mouth to call him out on his obvious lie, but Percy waved his hand at him, a sign to shut up. After Percy and Dylan debated what truly happened (a debate Percy easily won, he can be scary if he wanted), Percy dragged Nico away from them.

"No matter what they say, you can never start a fight. You understand? Never!", Percy said. Nico nodded and looked at the floor. "Good. Now we can only hope that they don't report you, or you will be in some serious trouble."

**~OoOoOoO~**

Will always hated the time in the locker rooms. It was stinking like old socks and sweaty shoes, boys were fighting over the one bench in the room and there was always something to gossip about. It seemed like not only girls liked to gossip, boys did it too. Today's topic was Nico di Angelo and how he beat up two seniors without getting hurt himself. One of them, Marc, had a broken nose and the other, Dylan, had two fractured ribs. Nobody knew why or how, but apparently it was so embarrassing for the older boys, that they didn't show up for school. Some boys found that incredibly awesome, others were glad that Dylan and his friends finally got what they deserved (those were the boys who got bullied by them). But sadly the majority was convinced that Nico was aggressive and beat them up for no reason.

Will couldn't say that he knew Nico well, but from the few times they spend together he knew that he wouldn't do something like that.

A few minutes later he found himself standing next to Nico, waiting for the coach to show up. The others all shot him curious and wary glances, like he was going to kill them all in the next second.

"Why are they all staring at me?", Nico suddenly asked quietly.

Will looked over at him surprised. "Because of what happened with Dylan and Marc yesterday, I think. You shouldn't let them bother you, they just don't know you"

"Oh, I'm not bothered, I'm used to it. I was just curious to know why people don't like me this time", Nico said. He sounded like he couldn't care less about what people thought of him, but Will could see in his eyes that he was affected by it. Speaking of which, Nico's eyes were really fascinating. They looked ancient, like they saw too much, and they carried a deep sadness within them. Will wondered what happened to Nico.

"What are you staring at?", Nico's voice brought him out of his thoughts and Will realized that he was still staring at him.

"Nothing!", he hastily said and looked away, trying to hide his growing blush.

The coach entered, providing some needed distraction. But just seconds after, he partnered them up for the warm-up. Immediately, friends partnered with friends, leaving Will, Nico and a girl named Sofie to be the last. Sofie got into a group with two other girls, so that Will and Nico were left.

"We could start with jogging and then stretch", Will suggested.

"I guess", Nico said.

The warm-up was awkward to say the least. Will tried very hard not to look at Nico and Nico, sensing that the other boy was uncomfortable, was trying not to interact much with Will. Afterwards they started playing basketball. Will wasn't exactly a pro in sports and everybody knew that, so he was always the last to be selected for a team and then stayed nearly the whole time on the bench. Same today. When the coach released them for the day, Will stayed behind to help him clean up the equipment. Nico was still there too. To Will it looked like he was trying to stall time instead of actually helping, so he walked over to him to confront him on it.

Nico looked completely surprised when Will crossed his arms in front of his chest and asked him what he thought he was doing.

"I...uh...was just...helping to clean up", Nico stammered.

Will narrowed his eyes. "Then why aren't you helping?"

Nico was silent and looked away, a small blush on his cheeks. It looked kind of cute.

"I'm not cute", Nico said and scowled at him.

Will paled. Did he just say this out loud.

"Of course not, you're the king of zombies", Will said.

Internally he wanted to slap himself. Whenever he was panicked he said really stupid things that often didn't make any sense.

Nico looked completely bewildered. Then he blinked once, twice, before bursting out laughing.

"I guess you can say that", he said.

"What?", now Will was confused.

Nico stopped laughing abruptly and regained his normal, serious face.

"Forget it" With these words said he turned and walked towards the locker room, leaving Will behind, wondering what just happened.

**~OoO~**

Saying that Will was sad that Nico didn't show up for class was exaggerated. He wasn't sad, maybe a bit disappointed. In the week following the weird conversation after PE Will had tried to get closer to Nico. He had offered to tutor him in Maths and suggested to go to the cinema, but both times Nico had declined. It seemed like he was talking even less and was now ignoring Will too. Said boy wondered what he did wrong. He had planned to talk to Nico about it, but now the boy was missing from school.

Mrs. Dodds started the lesson on linear equations and wrote down some problems on the board. Then she told them to solve them. Will pulled out his calculator and went to work.

Five minutes in and the door opened.

"Sorry I'm late. There was something wrong with the car"

It was Nico and Will looked up. Nico looked paler than usual, with a bruise over his left eye that looked like it was very fresh. Instead of yelling at him, which was usual for Mrs. Dodds, she just nodded and motioned for him to sit.

Will was curious about the bruise and decided to ask Nico about it later. But he would probably only get a vague answer again. It was like this every time Will asked the other boy something. When he asked about where he lived before, he got a short 'California' as an answer (not the city or anything, just 'California'), when he wanted to know more about his life back in Cali, he got a shrug and when he asked why he moved from Italy to America, he was ignored altogether. It was like Nico didn't want him to know about his life and Will was fine with that, people don't have to spill their life story, but it was frustrating when he never got an answer.

"What happened?", Will asked after the lesson and pointed towards the bruise.

It was a deep blue and contrasted greatly with Nico's pale complexion. It also gave him a bad boy look (which means more than before) and Will kind of liked that. Oh great, now he was starting to like the way Nico looked.

"I...walked against a door", Nico said.

Will noticed the hesitation beforehand and wondered if that was the truth. He wanted to ask something else, but noticed that Nico wasn't looking at him, but at Mrs. Dodds, who was watching them with narrowed eyes.

Will gulped and hastily left the room, Nico trailing behind him.

"What do you have next?", Will wanted to know.

"History"

"Cool, I have Biology next, so see you in PE?"

Nico nodded and trudged off. Before he could get very far, Will sprinted after him.

"Do you want to do something today? I could show you around New York", he asked and then blushed.

Nico stared at him surprised, before stammering out a 'okay, sounds good'. Then he walked away very fast. Will turned towards Biology with a bright red head. Why did he ask that? And did Nico actually say 'yes'? Was this a date? Hold on! Backtrack, Solace! This wasn't a date, just two friends hanging out. It didn't matter that Will found the other boy attractive or anything, this was a completely friendly get-together.

They met up after school, Will waiting for Nico in the parking lot. Students were streaming out of the building and towards the cars, the bus stop or the subway station down the road. He had seen Percy and Annabeth coming out of the building a few minutes ago. They were standing near the teacher's cars and were deep in conversation.

"Hey, Will", Nico said suddenly, making Will jump in the air in surprise.

"Don't creep up on me like that!", he scolded.

"Well I'm sorry that you're deaf", Nico muttered. He grumbled something about 'not creeping up, just walking' and Will figured he should change the topic.

"What do you want to see first? Is this your first time in New York at all?", he asked.

"I don't really care", Nico said. "And no it isn't, but I was never here for sightseeing. Mostly visiting Percy"

"Percy lived here before?", Will asked surprised. He always thought he moved together with Nico.

"Yeah, all his life. He even went to this school for two years and then moved somewhere else for a short while."

"Why did he move?"

Nico glared at him as if that topic was forbidden. "Reasons"

Will nodded and then they started walking towards the subway station.

"So, this is the Empire State Building. We can go up if you want", Will said.

They were standing in front of the tall building, Will craning his neck to see up and Nico had his eyes fixed on a spot in front of it. Will followed his look and his gaze landed on a bit of cracked pavement. Nico was staring at it with a shudder. The boy got weirder and weirder.

"Soo...do you want to go up?", Will repeated his earlier question.

Nico looked away from the floor and nodded. Will grinned and let the way to the front desk. The man behind it looked up bored, before his gaze landed on Nico and then his eyes widened. Okay, now Will was seriously freaked out. What was going on here?

"600th floor, I presume?", the man asked and pulled out a key-card from under his desk.

Nico looked horrified for a second, before shaking his head wildly.

"No! Just the visitation platform", he said.

The man looked confused for a second. Nico said something in another language that sounded like it could be Greek and the man got a horrified look on his face, before he apparently apologized, using Nico's name. Will wondered how he knew that. Then the man looked at him and started laughing.

"Did you really believe that? There is no 600th floor, now get going!"

Nico pushed Will away from the desk and towards the elevators.

"What was that? Do you two know each other?", Will asked, completely confused.

"Yeah, long story. And the thing about the 600th floor is an inside joke, so don't think anything about it", Nico said and looked at him sternly. It was clear that he wanted Will to forget what happened.

Will nodded and entered the elevator together with a family of four. Nico got in behind him. Suddenly there was a shout and a big group of tourists entered the elevator after them. Will was pressed against the back wall and if that wasn't bad enough, Nico was pressed against him. He felt cold and was shuddering slightly, obviously very uncomfortable with touching Will. Said boy wasn't very comfortable either. He could feel every single movement Nico made and that made all his blood flow to his head.

The ride was thankfully not very long and as soon as they were outside, Will got a safe distance away from Nico. He couldn't have the other boy know that he was attracted to him. He would freak out and shun Will, just like his friends in middle school.

Will wasn't sure what pulled him towards Nico. It couldn't just be his looks, right? Sure, Nico looked very good, but then he would maybe admire him from a distance not try to be his friend. They didn't even know each other that well. Okay, scratch that, they didn't know each other at all. Nico was a mystery he tried to figure out. Yes, that must be it. If he just stayed away from him for a while, then the blushing and admiring would go away.

Sadly, he didn't even manage that for ten minutes. Will found Nico leaning against the railing in a rather secluded part of the platform. He was staring at the city beneath them, obviously deep in thought.

"You should stop trying to be my friend", Nico said, making Will flinch back in surprise. He hadn't thought that Nico had noticed him.

"Why?", he asked.

"Because you don't want to be"

It was said quietly and Will had to strain to understand it. "Why wouldn't I want to be your friend? Sure, we don't really know each other, but from the few times we talked, you seem like a very nice person."

Nico chuckled and shook his head.

"You're the first person who ever called me nice.", he said. "But trust me, we can't be friends. You wouldn't want to if you actually get to know me"

Will was staring at the slightly younger boy, who was still looking out at the city. He seemed convinced that Will would hate him as soon as he opened up.

It broke Will's heart.

**~OoOoOoO~**

Nico liked watching New York. All those mortals down there were so blissfully unaware of what was out there and Nico was envious of that. He remembered when he was still thinking that the world of the gods was a myth and he played this stupid card game, when Bianca was still alive. He missed those times.

Will was still staring at Nico, who tried to resist the urge to turn his head to look at him.

"Why don't you let me try", Will whispered and he sounded hurt.

Nico looked over at him. He also looked like Nico had just punched him right in the face. Why was he still here?

Nico had no intention of letting Will get close to him. As soon as Will knew, he would be terrified and hate him. He couldn't let someone else hurt him. And keeping the world of the gods a secret was impossible. He had already messed up thrice and soon Will would figure it out. Nico looked away from Will's bright blue eyes and back towards the city.

"I should go home", Nico said.

He could see Will nod sadly from the corner of his vision.

Nico turned and walked back to the elevator, leaving the other boy standing at the railing, staring sadly down at the street. He was the only one in the elevator, something he was grateful for. He couldn't deal with other people right now.

Tired, Nico leaned against the wall. Was he feeling bad for leaving Will? Yes. Was it for the better? Yes, too. A friendship between mortal and demigod never turned out good. Take Rachel as an example. She nearly died a dozen times, fought in two wars and now housed the Oracle of Delphi. This wasn't a life he wished for Will.

The elevator opened and Nico left the building. He was tempted to shadow-travel to Percy's apartment, but he had promised not to use his powers. Something that was actually quite hard. So, instead he walked. He wasn't sure which subway train to take and he didn't want to risk getting lost.

"Nico!", a shout sounded and Nico could hear the pounding on footsteps on the pavement.

What was Will doing now?

The other boy came to a stop in front of Nico, panting hard. Did he run all the way from the ESB? That was half-a-mile away.

"Nico", he said, after he regained his breathing. "I really want to be your friend, so whatever it is you think I will hate you for, you can tell me and I promise I won't judge you."

Nico raised an eyebrow in doubt.

"Sure.", he said sarcastically.

Then he walked around Will and continued on his way. Will grabbed his wrist, sending a jolt through Nico. The skeletal butterflies in his stomach erupted again, something that had happened every time Will so much as looked at him. If Nico was honest, this was another reason why he wanted to stay away from Will. He didn't want to have a crush on another straight boy. Avoiding him seemed like a good option, it did work with Percy, after all. (Thinking back on that, avoiding Percy hadn't helped at all, but Nico refused to admit that)

"I promise that I won't judge you and I never break my promises", Will said.

He sounded like he actually wanted to know. Still, Nico felt reluctant about telling him, but hey, that's understandable. Right?

Nico wasn't sure how, but an hour later he was sitting in Will's room. It was completely different from his own. Pictures were pinned to the wall, a flower was sitting on the windowsill, the walls were painted in a bright yellow and the desk was full with papers and books from school. It looked like the room of a normal teenager.

Will was nibbling on some cookies his mother had brought, while Nico was nervously twisting his skull ring.

"What do the beads stand for?", Will asked.

Nico looked down at his wrist. He had gotten the beads after the Giant War, including those of the years before, but didn't want to wear a necklace. So he had wrapped the band around his wrist.

"Summer camp", he told Will.

He was still contemplating whether he should tell Will the truth or not. But he was actually leaning towards talking. If Will refused to believe it or was disgusted or anything, Nico could just go back to New Rome. He wanted to do that anyway.

"Oh, cool. I always went to summer camp in Virginia.", Will said. "We never got anything though. Did Percy and Annabeth go there too? Because they have the same beads?"

Nico nodded. Will seemed to talk a lot when he was nervous. He obviously was trying to break the ice, to make Nico comfortable enough to talk to him. But in reality, it made Nico even more nervous. It made him wonder why he wanted to tell him anything at all. Was it because Will seemed to care about Nico? Or was it because Nico cared more about Will than he should? Probably a mix of both.

Will was still talking, telling Nico about his summers in Virginia.

"Do you know the myths about the Greek and Roman gods?", Nico asked, completely cutting off Will's monologue.

"Uh, yes. They are interesting.", Will said confused.

"They are real"

There was a silence after Nico's words.

"No they aren't. They were made up by the Ancient Greeks to explain...", Will trailed off after seeing the annoyed look on Nico's face.

"Are you serious? The gods are real?" Will looked completely shocked.

"It's okay if you don't believe it", Nico said quietly.

He stood up, ready to go, when Will pulled him back and on the bed next to him.

"No, that sounds exiting. Tell me more"

**~OoOoOoO~**

It was late in the evening when Nico finished telling Will everything. It was hard to take in, but it sure made sense. Nico told him how the gods were immortal and moved with something called the 'heart of the west' and currently resided in the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. This lead to Will ask how Nico was connected to that. Apparently the gods still got around, mingling with mortals and having demigods. They were hunted by monsters and fought for their lives since a young age, so they build safe camps. Camp Half-Blood for the the Greeks and Camp Jupiter for the Romans, which had been separated for a couple of centuries until some sort of war last year, in which Camp Half-Blood was destroyed. Nico was very vague about this part, only saying that the Earth AKA Gaea wanted to destroy the world and they had to prevent that. In the year before was another war with a bad titan and a battle in front of the Empire State Building AKA Olympus. He even told him about Percy and Annabeth being demigods too, a son of Poseidon and a daughter of Athena respectively. The only thing he never mentioned was his godly parent, something that confused Will a bit. Maybe he didn't know?

At the end of the story, Nico was looking at him with an expectant look, like he expected Will to yell at him or something.

Instead all he said was: "Okay. That explains why you don't want to talk about your family"

"Wait, you aren't thinking I'm crazy or something?"

"No"

"And you aren't the least bit afraid?"

"Of you? No, you don't seem like a person who would harm me"

Will smiled at Nico, who was looking flustered.

Will scooted a bit closer towards the other boy, so that their knees were nearly touching.

"Tell me about your family and your friends. Who is your parent?"

Nico looked like he wanted to talk about anything but that, but he talked anyway.

"I have a Roman half-sister, her name is Hazel, and ..uh... a friend who is a daughter of Bellona named Reyna. She is the praetor of New Rome. And...Jason, son of Jupiter, but we haven't seen each other in nearly a year, so I guess he doesn't really count as a friend...that's it"

Will stared at him open-mouthed. He had only one friend? That was just sad. From what he learned in the last hours, Nico was an amazing person and he definitely deserved some friends.

But he was still evading his questions.

From what he gathered, Nico's father was the god, so what about his mother?

"She is dead", Nico answered his unspoken question (or was it spoken and he didn't realize) and scowled at him.

Oh great, now Will felt bad. If he had known, he would have never asked.

"And my father is Hades"

Will nodded at that information. Hades was the lord of the Underworld, where the dead people went, right? Or was he the got of marriage? Wait, no, that was Hera...

"Will?", Nico asked warily, pulling Will out of his thoughts.

Said boy looked up and noticed the guarded expression on Nico's face, like he was afraid of something.

Will realized that his reaction was what Nico was afraid of. He did say that Will would probably hate him if he knew.

What was so bad about being the son of Hades? Sure, in the stories Hades was always one of the villains, but that didn't mean that his son was bad. He didn't know much about the people in the demigod world, but he didn't think that every demigod hated Nico for being Hades' son. Either Nico believed that because of a few idiots, or all demigods were biased assholes.

Will had talked to Annabeth and Percy and they seemed to like Nico, so maybe the boy had more friends than he himself believed.

"Sounds cool", he said finally, making Nico stare at him in complete bewilderment.

"You want to stay overnight? There is no school tomorrow", Will continued.

"I..you...what?", Nico stammered.

"Did something fry your brain? I said that you can stay over the night"

"But...but...why?"

"Well, it's a lot to take in and I could stand to see a friendly face now"

"What? My face?"

Will had to admit that wasn't his best argument.

"Yes. Now, are you staying or not?"

"It's not like you're giving me a choice", Nico grumbled.

Will leaned forward and wrapped him in a hug.

"Great, that's gonna be the best sleepover ever", he said happily.

He pulled away and grinned at the completely frozen demigod. His eyes were wide and because of the short distance between their faces, Will noticed that Nico's eyes were actually a dark brown and not black. There were also faded freckles on his nose and a long and thin scar next to his right eye. Before he could stop himself, he reached out to touch the scar.

"What are you doing?", Nico whispered.

Honestly, Will didn't know. It was like his brain had short-circuited and his hand was moving on his own. His finger followed the faint white line down until it stopped on Nico's cheekbone, causing the other boy to shudder slightly. (It wasn't a disgusted shudder, so Will took that as a good sign.) His finger dropped deeper, until it was resting under Nico's chin. Nico himself wasn't doing anything to stop Will, instead he had his gaze locked on Will's eyes. Will was sure that if he didn't want this, then his finger would have been broken already.

Nico let out a shaky breath that brushed against Will's lips and that was when he noticed that he had leaned in and their lips where only centimeters apart.

Will blushed and was ready to pull back, when Nico closed the gap and kissed him.

**~OoOoOoO~**

If someone had asked Will at the start of the school year about his plans, they would have included good grades, going to the cinema with Lou Ellen and Cecil and signing up for the debate team. He never planned to get new friends, learn about a secret world and start dating a boy who was half god. His plans got mixed up royally by the arrival of that scrawny and pale kid in his Math class, but he wouldn't want it any other way.


End file.
